Rodeo Company Says Contaminated Feed Killed Up to 70 Horses

An Oklahoma-based rodeo company has said that contaminated feed killed up to 70 of its horses.

Beutler and Son Rodeo Co., founded in 1929 as Beutler Brothers near Elk City, supplies livestock for rodeos, including the National Finals Rodeo. A week ago, dozens of its horses died after eating some feed.

“Got a lot of feed, and somehow, someway, don’t really know why, but it was the wrong stuff,” Rhett Beutler, who runs the rodeo company with his father, told local Fox affiliate KOKH. “We fed that morning, and then all of a sudden, there, mid-morning, we started seeing things that weren’t normal for horses, and horses started going down.”

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF) said in a statement that on August 23, it was informed “of a potential issue with horses relating to a single bulk feed order for Beutler and Son Rodeo Co.”

An inspector who visited the company’s site last Monday learned that the feed came from Kansas.

“The ODAFF inspector collected a feed sample which is being analyzed in two state-certified laboratories,” the statement read.

The department is working with the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) on the matter.

A KDA spokesperson, Jamie Stewart, told the Associated Press (AP): “We have initiated an investigation which includes labeling procedures, operating procedures and a review of their records to ensure the appropriate protocols were followed” in producing and shipping the feed to Oklahoma.

This has been an emotional time for the Beutler family.

“All them horses are kind of like my kids, I’ve raised them from time they were born, and, you know, it goes from the mares, the colts, to the 5/6/7, year olds, I mean, we had some world champions die,” Beutler told KOKH. “Once you lose one, that’s one too many.”

The Beutlers’ veterinarian, Dr. Gregg VeneKlasen, told the AP that the deaths are a “tragedy.”

But the show must go on. With the help of some friends, the company will be supplying horses for the Elk City Rodeo of Champions, which starts Friday night and goes into Sunday night.

“It’s our hometown gig and, you know, we’ve still got horses we’re using and we’ve got some friends horses, and, you know, we’re gonna make it happen, it’s going to be good,” Beutler told local NBC affiliate KFOR-TV.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.